amount is likely far more than republicans would be willing to accept and double the amount that speaker boehner had offered the president during their debt negotiations last year. today, the president is scheduled to meet with ceos from a dozen companies among them general electric, ford and ibm. they'll discuss ways to work together and try to find a balanced approach to reducing the deficit. during a closed door meeting yesterday with union leaders and liberal supporters, president obama reportedly vowed that he would "not budge" when it comes to letting the bush tax cuts expire for the country's highest earners. labor leader and president of the afl-cio was among those at the white house meeting and says he and the president are right now on the same page, richard trumka. >> we're working to make sure we're not paying a tab for a party we didn't go to. the president led with the notion of protecting the middle class and now you have republicans that have it in their power and could sign a bill tomorrow that protects the middle class so we'll see what they can. are we going to push them on th